Statement by Ms. Josephine Ouedraogo Acting Deputy Executive Secretary

10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development

Addis Ababa, 12-14 February 2007

His Excellency Mr. Foad Ibrahim, Minister of Information of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,

Mr Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information,

UNESCO,

Mr Fidele Sarassoro, UN Resident Coordinator,

Distinguished Colleagues of the United Nations System,

Fellow Communicators,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is with great pleasure that I welcome all of you to the United Nations Conference Centre, your conference centre here in Addis Ababa, for this 10 th Inter Agency Roundtable on Development Communication. A special thanks is due to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of our host country, Ethiopia, for his continued support to the UN system in general, and for joining us here today.

Colleagues,

Effective communication has long been a priority of the United Nations system. In the past, however, each UN sister agency tended to work separately within its mandate. More recently, the organization has been striving to leverage investments in equipment, human resources and policy design by delivering as one, sounding as one, talking as one. Today, we recognize that to pass on our common message, we must all work in full collaboration. This 10 th Roundtable shows just how far we've come in our thinking as a system, and – hopefully - in our actions.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The central tenet in our field of development is “change.” “Change” is at the heart of the questions we ask, the daily work that we do, the global goals we set for ourselves, and our long-term hopes for our society. When we sit down and decide on goals and targets – such as the Millennium Development Goals – we ask ourselves – what kind of changes do we want to see in the world, and with whom can we build relationships to help us achieve or guide these changes?

We ask ourselves about our time horizons for these changes, and how we can manage our own organizational changes to match our vision of the world today and in the future.

To generate and effect change, we must communicate with many different stakeholders: governments, citizens, parliaments, civil society organizations, youth, victims, perpetrators of abuse, religious leaders, business, small shopkeepers, farmers, traders, buyers, sellers, unions, and ourselves – of course.

There are multiple definitions for communication – but for the sake of argument – let's call it ‘interaction.' Many of our interactions centre on dialogue – bringing together people seeking to make change through conversation and agreement.

This is particularly true in the field of policy design. As a liaison body between Member States and other players in the field of development in Africa, communication through interaction and dialogue is a priority to the ECA.

After listening to our Member States in a series of extensive consultations, last year we launched a thorough repositioning exercise. This is aimed at addressing Africa's most urgent development needs. One of the main points of the ECA repositioning has been the strengthening of our sub-regional offices – we call them SROs. As policy dialogue centres, the SROs facilitate sub-regional economic cooperation and integration. And by operating in the field, they facilitate closer interaction with stakeholders at the national and sub-regional levels.

Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a fortunate coincidence for Africa that at a time when it is primed to develop, through technology, we are able to jump over so many development obstacles . For example, we at the ECA have firmly embedded our work programme on ICT for Development. We believe that by advising African Member States on how to improve and use technology, we can lead the continent in an era of unprecedented dialogue in the fields of governance, democracy, economic and social development that represent what the United Nations stands for.

All of it is communication: we use communication tools such as web-based debates and fora to understand policy needs, for example. The results emerging from these dialogues are subsequently used to assist Member States in strategising their development requirements.

Some of our discussion groups, such as the one on Poverty Reduction Strategies and the MDGs, and another on Youth and the Information Society, have presented groundbreaking results in identifying development requirements and priorities of the African continent. By providing these discussion fora, and interacting with our client base and ourselves, we can better advise our own programmes, also expanding our stakeholder base.

On that note, Colleagues, we can go quite a bit further in our definition of development communication. Rather than bipolar or participatory only, communication in development and for development is a multiple highway, where all stakeholders are participants, using skills, expertise, doubts, culture and experience to move ahead – effecting change, and sometimes even finding out that things are OK as they are.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

United Nations Colleagues,

As the African arm of the UN secretariat, it is up to the ECA to transmit both Africa's needs and priorities to the world, and the global goals of the United Nations to Africa. It is our interaction with both sides of the equation that can assist the widest development for Africa and - by analogy - the world.

In order to efficiently respond to the world's development needs, the UN and its partners must work together to identify challenges and opportunities. We must harness expertise, sharing knowledge of the different operational and political aspects of development in order to reach common goals. In effect, one Millennium Development Goal is intrinsically linked to the other, and is represented by the work of one or several of our agencies.

Our task for the next couple of days is to develop ideas and solutions for common dilemmas and challenges. Besides tapping into our joint expertise, we need to make some decisions on how we can effectively work together to get our Member States to communicate with themselves. So that development can come from within societies, and change – when necessary - can occur from the heart.

In the words of Jurgen Habermas, a leading German social thinker, “if two people act communicatively, joint change and action are easily possible.” We can extend that remark to two, three, infinite numbers of people. When we all join hands and act communicatively, development is possible.